The Finances of Louis XVI (1788)

Nicholas E. Bomba

In 1788, Jacques Necker, the finance minister of Louis XVI, released a full accounting of the
king’s revenues and expenditures. The spreadsheet below is an abridged and edited version of
the full compte rendu au Roi. While most items have been consolidated into the general
categories shown here, the most important lines—showing the “big picture”—are highlighted in
bold.
To appreciate this data fully, you should know how the French tax collection system
worked prior to the Revolution of 1789 and what made it different from current norms. In the
modern United States, for example, there is a central government agency (the IRS) that collects
most federal taxes. This money goes directly to the U.S. Treasury, which disburses the funds
throughout the rest of the government. In France during the Ancién Régime (prior to the
Revolution), there was no central tax-collection agency equivalent to the IRS, and the royal
treasury did not hold or disburse most of the revenues collected in the king’s name. Instead, the
government relied on hundreds of private firms—we’ll call them “financiers”—to collect taxes,
tolls, and fees as well as manage the money once it was received. These financiers charged hefty
fees for their work, not to mention interest on the money they held for the king. One type of
contract, known as a ferme générale, stipulated that the government would receive a fixed sum at
the end of each year, regardless of how much money was actually collected. This was
advantageous to the government in times of recession, when tax receipts were lower; the
government would be guaranteed a certain amount of revenue no matter what, and the financier
or “farmer” would have to eat the loss. In times of economic growth, however, the financier
would often collect more than the contracted sum, thus earning a substantial profit. Another time
of contract, known as a régie générale, stipulated that all the money collected in the king’s name
belonged to the government, yet if it exceeded a certain amount, the remainder would be split
between the crown and the financier. Regardless of the precise terms, each contract gave the
financier a hefty share of the revenues collected on behalf of the king. These “deductions” are
shown on Line 10. As you can see, of the 472 million livres (French pounds) that were collected
in the king’s name in 1788, over 260 million (55%) were taken by the financiers as profits,
leaving the government with only 211 million to pay its expenses. As you can see from lines 22,
24, and 24, this was not enough. The government had a massive 160 million livre deficit, on top
of its long-term debt of approximately 2 billion livres, which had been accumulating since the
reign of Louis XIV in the seventeenth century. In order to keep the government running—and
pay back his creditors—the king had to take out new loans at high interest rates (Extraordinary
Income, lines 26-33), thereby increasing his debt. This cycle of indebtedness begetting
indebtedness was becoming unsustainable.

Questions:
1.) Ordinarily, information like this was considered a state secret. Why would the king of France
consent to make this information public?
2.) Modern historical accounts of the French Revolution often emphasize the lavish lifestyle and
court culture of the king as a major contributor to the crisis. According to this financial report,
how significant was the royal household (line 15) compared to overall expenditures? To what
extent did it contribute to the financial crisis?
3.) If you were the finance minister, how would you resolve the deficit and long-term debt?
 Finances of Louis XVI (1788)
Ordinary Income livres
1 Sales taxes, customs duties, tolls 210,671,875
2 Land and income taxes 161,278,134
3 Administration of Royal Lands and Forests (fees, rents, sales) 51,240,000
4 Post and Parcel 13,100,000
5 Royal Lottery 9,860,000
6 Estates (Provincial Assemblies) of Languedoc, Bretagne, Bourgogne, Provence 19,898,763
Loans repaid by the United States of America (for assistance in War of
7 Independence, 1776-1781) 1,600,000
8 Miscellaneous Revenues (too small and numerous to list) 4,766,777
9 Total Revenue Collected in the name of the King of France 472,415,549
10 Deductions for expenses and allocations on the above revenue -260,706,572
11 Net income available for use by the Royal Treasury 211,708,977

Ordinary Expenses
12 Army 100,230,000
13 Navy and Colonial Administration 45,000,000
14 Ministry of Foreign Affairs 9,130,000
15 Household of the King, Queen, Royal Family, Salaries of Attendants 31,917,700
16 Pensions 27,000,000
17 Infrastructure, Poor Relief, & Hospitals 3,867,000
18 Salaries of Government Officials 7,836,900
19 Miscellaneous expenditures 2,562,369
20 City of Paris Government 3,331,300
21 Payback of Loans (Interest and Principal) 55,979,100
22 Total Ordinary Expenses 286,834,369
Extraordinary Expenses (interest on total sovereign debt, estimated at
23 2,000,000,000 livres) 85,612,100
24 Total Ordinary + Extraordinary Expenses 372,446,469

25 BALANCE (Deficit) -160,737,492

Extraordinary Income (new loans, advances, funds to plug deficit)

26 Loan of 1787 120,000,000
27 Loans or Buyouts from Provinces of Languedoc, Provence, Bourgogne 17,200,000
28 Advance from General Farmers, without interest 2,500,000
29 Remittance from Royal Life Insurance Company 11,400,000
30 Cash on hand as of January 1, 1788 8,000,000
31 Funds remaining from loans from Maritime Flanders and Gênes 3,227,500
32 Miscellaneous funds 5,803,000
33 Total Extraordinary Income 168,130,500

Source: "Compte rendu au Roi" (1788) printed in Charles Gomel, Les causes financières de la Révolution française
Vol. 2 (New York: B. Franklin, 1966), 434-438.